She looked up at him, and tears welled again in her eyes. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I shouldn’t have come here. I didn’t mean to. I just … when I started walking, I wasn’t really thinking about where I was heading. Or … I don’t know. Maybe I was.’

‘There’s no need to be sorry. You can come to me whenever you want. Always. You know that.’ Fleet sat down on the sofa beside her. She leaned into him and he wrapped her in his arms.

Christ, it felt good to hold her. She fitted perfectly, just as she always had.

‘I’ve been stupid, Rob. So, so stupid. And I didn’t know where else to go.’ Holly shook her head. ‘Rob, I …’ She pulled away, looked down at the liquid in her cup.

‘Tell me,’ Fleet urged. ‘Whatever it is, you can tell me.’

‘I’ve been seeing someone,’ Holly replied – quickly, as though ripping off a plaster.

But the pain, for Fleet, bloomed. It was like something solid swelling in his chest, pushing against his lungs, his windpipe, his heart.

‘I’m sorry,’ Holly said. ‘I should have told you. I just … I didn’t know how to. And I didn’t know whether it meant anything, or … or whether it was just a … a …’ Her sentence trailed off.

‘Why would you have felt you had to tell me?’ said Fleet. The words, to his ear, sounded petulant. He hadn’t meant for them to come out that way. ‘We’re divorced, Holly. It’s your business who you see.’ And then something clicked, and the pain in Fleet’s chest turned to something sharper. ‘Did he hurt you? Is that why you’re here? If he hurt you, I’ll—’

‘He didn’t hurt me. Rob? Honestly, Rob, he didn’t. Please, sit back down.’

Fleet hadn’t noticed getting up. Holly’s hand caught his wrist and pulled him towards her.

‘He didn’t hurt me,’ she repeated, looking him straight in the eye. ‘He left me, but he didn’t hurt me. That is, we left each other. We only saw each other for a couple of months. Three. I thought I liked him. I did like him, but not … not as much as I told myself I did. And it turned out he was never really serious about me.’

‘What do you mean?’

Holly put her mug down on the table. She looked like she was about to cry again, but rolled her lips between her teeth as though to stop herself.

She took a breath.

‘I’m pregnant, Rob. I’m going to have a baby. And I’ve never been so scared in my whole life.’

He’d switched on some lights, found Holly a change of clothes. Just one of his old shirts and some woollen socks. He had nothing else he could offer her that she wouldn’t have slipped right through.